MNI CHINA MARKETS: Yuan Weakens; Rates Mixed; Stocks Down

     BEIJING (MNI) - The yuan fell against the U.S. dollar Thursday morning

after the People's Bank of China set a weaker daily fixing. 

     The yuan was last at 6.6048 against the U.S. unit, compared with the

official closing price of 6.5988 on Wednesday. 

     The PBOC set the yuan central parity rate against the U.S. dollar at 6.6034

on Thursday, slightly weaker than Wednesday's 6.6011. The PBOC has set the

fixing weaker for four consecutive trading days.

     Money market rates were mixed Thursday morning as the PBOC's CNY280 billion

injection in liquidity via open-market operations balanced out the same amount

of maturing funds. The seven-day repo average was last at 2.9123% on Thursday,

lower than Wednesday's average of 2.9267%. The overnight repo average was at

2.7634%, higher than Wednesday's 2.6164%.

     The yield on benchmark 10-year China government bonds was last at 3.9250%,

up from the previous close of 3.9000%, according to Wind, a financial data

provider. 

     Stocks were down, led lower by the property agency and insurance sectors.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was last down 0.07% at 3,335.48. Hong

Kong's Hang Seng Index was 1.03% lower at 29,317.47.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: iris.ouyang@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: vince.morkri@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,M$$FI$,MN$FI$,MN$FX$]